Smoking in the Boys Room

Ed turned his head as she pulled her bra out. The locker door wasn't quite big enough for full coverage, and he wanted to be polite if he could.

"Thanks! That really means a lot coming from you...studying? Well, to be honest, I didn't come originally to study..." he blushed awkwardly before continuing.

"Let's see, how to shorten this...dunno if your a big drinker, but ever heard of Highland Hunter Whiskey? Blue and white bottle, with the picture of a some wee beastie's skull and "To The Hunt" on it? That's ours. Da made it himself years ago. Our last name actually translates to Hunter, and the ancient clan we've some old ties too lived in the Highlands, so two and two together, ya know?"

He continued, while reaching into his bag, trying to find a hair tie for his long blonde hair.

"Anyway, one of Da's more recent business partners, a guy named Yamaguchi-San, who owns a bunch of clubs and whisky bars out here, he had Da hit it off immediately, became great friends. About 5 years ago, when I was just about to enter high school, they thought it would be a great way to cement their partnership by sending myself and Yamaguchi's son, my age, over to live with the other family as transfer students. I've lived here since...damnit..."

He cursed, looking a little annoyed ais he kept looking through his bag. "I'm sorry to ask, but do you have a hair tie on you? I think one of Ryo's girlfriends stole mine..."

As Ed kept on speaking, Valley kept on dressing, shimmying into her bellbottom jeans and sliding on her croptop while she listened. It was all quite a story, but she didn’t mind listening in, always curious about the winding roads that people took to get into the wild world of wrestling.

”Not a whiskey fan, sorry to say, more into wine. Maybe you can get me hooked, though.” She gave him a quick wink as she brought out her socks. When he asked for a tie, Valley nodded and dove through her bag for a few seconds, fumblign around until she found what he was looking for.

”Here, if you don’t mind it being pink.” She tossed it his way, then sat down and started to slipping them on. ”Girlfriends? Plural? Your friend sounds like a bit of a player.” She started to have a giggle at it, then stopped when she processed more of what he said. ”Ryo, Ryo, Ryo...I know that name. Kamiya? He’s the guy with the speedo, right? Think I’ve seen him, here and there.”

The growing smile as she siphoned through her memories would tell Edward what her opinion on the man was. ”He’s a, uh...unique character.”

Edward had never cursed being too young to drink more than in that moment, but brushed it off, accepting the hair tie. "Well it matches my ring gear, so that's cool. And maybe I can't buy you a drink for another three years...but whose to say the company heir couldn't get a bottle sent special delivery to a friend, eh?" He joked, before the subject of Ryo came up.

"Yeah, "Unique" is certainly one word for it. I've never met a person who uses their dick to get themselves into and out of trouble. Guess that's just another reason why the Kamiya's are Tensions most famous family" he chuckled, using the gifted hair tie to wrap his hair up in a simple ponytail, rather than the over complicated braid he used in the ring.

"But yeah, we've been friends for a while now. We actually met when I came to Japan and started going to high school out here. We became fast friends, were on the swim team, wrestling team. He uh...was also my first boyfriend once I discovered I was bi..." He said with a blush, finally pulling a tank top out of his bag and slipping it on over his bare chest, as well as getting his own socks and shoes on as he continued.

"After high school, I was seriously contemplating going to college to get a degree in folklore and mythology, love that stuff, but Ryo convinced me to give wrestling a try since I was such a big AFW fan, and his cousin Tai had just retired, so him and Chigusa Yuuki, that purple haired girl from Wrestle Angels? I think they were dating at the time, anyway, they trained us on how to wrestle, and now I get to live a dream, and even got to meet and fight you, so I definitely owe him for that...which probably means I'm going to be up late tonight..." He said, only semi-joking with his innuendo as he cracked his neck, noting with relief that the pain of her submission hold had finally ebbed away.

"So yeah, he's a fun dude, if a bit...much, at times. Dude also loves speedos too much, nagged me for ages into wearing one for hentai matches. I'd suggest having a match with him, buuuuut...you know. Even if you do swing that way, I'm gonna assume from your career that hentai matches with speedo teens isn't exactly your preferred style." he said with a smile, casually leaning against the locker room, clearly enjoying the conversation.

Yeah, the Kamiyas were a big name around the AFW, weren’t they? Valley had never had the pleasure of meeting any of them in person that she could recall, but she’d heard more stories about them than she could care to recall. The misadventures with the Entropy Title were of especially big note - she never forgot looking down the roll of her predscessors to the title and noticing a man’s name was listed among them.

Just a little reminder of all the craziness she missed before she even got to the company. Sometimes she wondered what her life would’ve been like if she’d come in just a year or so earlier…

”Yeah, hentai matches are…” She let her voice trail off, not wanting to complete that sentence. The more sensual side of the AFW was creeping up on her these days, but she didn’t want to take the plunge just yet, and definitely not with a guy in a speedo.

”But that’s quite a story.” She sat down with her legs astride the bench, just taking a moment to relax. ”And it’s nice that you and he still have a good relationship, good to have someone you can rely on around here.”

Which actually brought up another topic, now that she thought about it. [color=#ff00ff]”Say, do you two train together? Looking for a sparring partner?

As soon as Valley's question finished, Edward, now also sitting on the same bench across from her, in no hurry to end this conversation, would suddenly look down at the bench, blushing brighter than he had before, if such a thing were possible.

"Uh, no actually. We don't train together anymore. Love the guy, but I train to actually train and he sees as more...an excuse to get shirtless and play around. So I had to stop training with him. I also tried picking up a sparring partner at the tension gym but uh..." His blush continued, awkwardly rubbing the back of his head. "The only taker was this new tension girl named Evelyn and uh...that ended up being about the same as Ryo actually. Between the thirsty people, and the bullies that roam the gym, it's actually been really hard to find a partner to...work...out...with..."

He trailed off, his emerald eyes going wide as realization of what Valley was asking him. "Wait...are uh...are you offering to train me!?" He said excitedly, leaning forward.

”Ha, yeah, I know a little bit about how that goes.” Valley chuckled and rubbed her nose at the mention of Ryo’s unique take on ‘training’. ”Reminds me of a little incident in a training session with a...well, i probably shouldn’t say.” She waved him off, thinking they weren’t quite close enough to give him the nitty gritty details of the Kaylee story just yet.

One day, though.

He seemed to catch her drift quick enough, and while she didn’t doubt he would be excited by the prospect, the glee he seemed to have over the idea was a treat to watch. ”Well, I was just asking for a sparring partner. But if you really think I’ve got something left to teach you? Sure. Training, I’m down for it.”

She wagged a finger his way, the same finger that her mother used on her way back when. She smiled, but there was an edge to her tone.. ”Don’t think it’ll be easy. If I’m training you, I’ll go hard into it, understand?”

Edward nodded his head in response, so eager in his acceptance that his ponytail bobbed up and down. Indeed, it wasn't certain if her warning that he would have to train hard failed to dampen his enthusiasm, or just made him more enthusiastic.

"That would be incredible! I'll work super hard! Getting to learn from you and pick your brain would be awesome, I could learn so much from you, like, like..."

Letting his fanboyism show, Edward pulled his shirt up, exposing his bare chest again, pointing out the darkening purple bruise dead center on his chest where his earlier risky move earned him a hard dropkick to the chest.

"How did you know to counter with that dropkick? I wasn't even sure I could do a Springboard Phoenix, and you had a counter ready like you deal with those every day! That had to take perfect reflexes!"

God, this guy was cute. He was like a little puppy, just eager and so full of energy and ready to go and everything. Not that she would tell him that - in her experience, men rarely like to be compared to small, cute things. But the metaphor was strong in her mind, couldn’t get it out. A big, happy, wrestling pup.

She tried to keep herself from smiling too much at his enthusiasm, and managed to keep it to a mild smirk. That was going to be a challenge in the future, she suspected.

She winced at the bruise he’d taken on - nasty hit - but shrugged it off. ”Reflexes, honestly. You have so many matches, take so many moves, you kind of learn to know the way they start up without thinking too much. The way your body has to shift, the way your eyes move, subtle stuff like that. It’s not the sort of thing you learn overnight.”

Valley leaned against the locker and blew some hair out of her face, nodding his way. ”But it’ll come to you, and it’s absolutely something we can work on. Among other things.”

Damn. Starting to get a little excited for this, too. Edward was contagious.